Ways to power off a virtual machine in an ESXi host using the command line

Source: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1014165

Using the ESXi command-line utility vim-cmd to power off the virtual machine

1. SSH into your ESXi server
2. Get a list of all registered virtual machines, identified by their VMID, Display Name and path to the .vmx configuration file by running this command: vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

   vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

   

3. Get the current state of a virtual machine by running this command:

   vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate VMID

   

4. Shutdown the virtual machine using the VMID found in Step 2 and run this command:

   vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown VMID

   

5. If the virtual machine fails to shut down, run this command:

   vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off VMID

Using the ESXi esxcli command to power off a virtual machine

The esxcli command can be used locally or remotely to power off a virtual machine running on ESXi 5.x or later.

1. Open a console session where the esxcli tool is available and simply SSH to your ESXi machine.
2. Get a list of running virtual machines, identified by World ID, UUID, Display Name, and path to the .vmx configuration file by running this command:

   esxcli vm process list

3. Power off the virtual machine from the list by running this command:

   esxcli vm process kill --type= [soft,hard,force] --world-id= WorldNumber

   Notes:

   • Three power-off methods are available. Soft is the most graceful, hard performs an immediate shutdown, and force should be used as a last resort.
   • alternate power off command syntax is: esxcli vm process kill -t [ soft,hard,force] -w WorldNumber
4. Repeat Step 2 and validate that the virtual machine is no longer running.